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Police, KPK resume legal battle
Jakarta Post - February 23, 2015
National Police crime investigation director Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said on Sunday that reconciliation efforts between the two institutions following President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's twin moves to appoint acting KPK commissioners and cancel the inauguration of National Police Education Division (Lemdikpol) chairman Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as National Police chief would not influence its investigation into Abraham, who has been named a suspect of forgery and Bambang, who has been named a suspect of perjury.
The police declared Abraham and Bambang suspects just days after the KPK named Budi a bribery suspect, resulting in their automatic suspensions in line with the 2002 Law on the KPK.
Waseso said investigators were currently working to collect evidence to bring charges against KPK commissioners Adnan Pandu Praja and Zulkarnain following the filing of criminal reports. He added that police had also received a report against KPK acting commissioner Johan Budi.
"We have involved experts to help review the cases [of Abraham and Bambang]. It is untrue that we have criminalized them. I have never even thought of doing so," Budi said, adding that his office had received a total of four reports against Bambang and five against Abraham.
The National Police are slated to bring both Abraham and Bambang in for questioning on Tuesday. In the summons letter sent to Bambang, fresh charges were listed.
The barrage of investigations launched against KPK leaders has not dissuaded the antigraft body from pursuing its case against Budi.
Prior to the inauguration of the new KPK acting leaders, the antigraft body's legal team filed an appeal with the Supreme Court over last week's controversial pretrial verdict that annulled Budi's status as a graft suspect and ordered a halt to the KPK investigation.
KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha confirmed on Sunday that the antigraft body had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. "We filed the petition for cassation on Friday," Priharsa said.
South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi granted Budi's pretrial petition last Monday to void his graft-suspect status and declare the KPK's investigation of him invalid. In the days since, the verdict has been lambasted as legally dubious and as an overreach of judicial authority.
The Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) does not authorize a judge to challenge someone's legal status in a pretrial court.
The erratic proceedings prompted the KPK to respond accordingly, filing an appeal with the Supreme Court that it may be forced to reject, as Article 45 Point A of the KUHAP stipulates that a pretrial verdict, including those for criminal cases carrying less than one-year punishments, cannot be challenged at the Supreme Court.
Law experts have suggested, however, that the Supreme Court could invoke other mandates to accept the appeal.
Article 32 of the 2009 Supreme Court Law, for example, stipulates that the court has the highest supervisory authority over the country's judicial system, including over the authority of judges and their verdicts.
Arsil, a researcher at the Institute for Research and Advocacy for Independent Courts (LeIP), said Point A of Article 45 of the KUHAP was merely aimed at preventing case-overload at the Supreme Court, not stymying important cases.
"Leaving such a controversial verdict as legal and binding would have serious legal consequences resulting from Sarpin's controversial acts. The intent of Point A has more to do with administrative concerns than the essence of a criminal case," Arsil said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/02/23/police-kpk-resume-legal-battle.html.
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